[SatNews] The Jason-3 satellite has safely arrived at California's Vandenberg Air Force Base, after a journey from France, in preparation for its launch on August 8, 2015, aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.

The Jason-3 spacecraft is unloaded from a 747 transport aircraft at Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, on June 18, 2015, concluding a journey from the Thales Alenia Space manufacturing facility in France. The Jason-3 satellite altimetry mission is scheduled to launch this August.

Jason-3 is an international partnership led by NOAA with participation from NASA, France's Centre Nationale d'Etudes Spatiales (the French space agency) and EUMETSAT, the European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California, built Jason-3's radiometer, GPS and laser reflector and is procuring the launch. JPL will also help oversee the science team, which is responsible for ensuring the quality of the data.